Omaha daily bee., 1887-07-01
STATE LABOR ARBITRATION.
Extent of Legal Machinery Created to Set
tie Disputes, "
THE RESULTS OF AGITATION.
What Has Been Accomplished BY
Boards OF Labor Commissioners in
Several States During the
Recent Years.
Our Labor Laws.

mas nad mucn larger influence on tne snap
Ing of laws than is generally thought
especially in the direction of providing
machinery for arbitration. Six states within
four years have established tribunals to con-
duct arbitration Most of those have been
created within two years, and two states.
within the latter period, have established
state boards with saaried members and I'm
portant powers. The rapid extension of this
form of industrial regulation and the decided
tendency 1t is already manifestiug to become
an actual interference with the employers
management of his own business is likely to
prove the most radical departure yet made
from the time-honored policy of religously
maintaining the separation of state and in
dustry. If the present tendency to regulate the
economic activities by government becomes
an accepted policy, it will be because, with
natural resources appropriated and great
working population depending wholly on
wages, industrial conditions have them
selves undergone a radical change. The
only question the average voter will ask
about state arbitration and the amount and
kind of power the board of arbitration should
exercise will be the purely practical question
HOW DOES TT WORK?
The tribunals so far created are of three
types and Of various degrees of authority.
The simplest type is a local board brought
tnto existence In an official way for specific,
temporary occasion, with which it expires.
The local board provided for by the New
Jersey law of 1850 is the best example of this
type. II Is constituted by the agreement of
an employer and his own employees, each
party selecting one arbitrator and those twoa
third, 1t arbitrate5 the single case for
which it was formed and then expires unless
it Is selected to hear some other dispute also.
Its decision is final on the questions sub
mitted and binding. Another type is the
local board created for a certain period and
authorized to hear any case properly brought
before it within that time. The Ohio law of
1856 provides for tribunals of this kind, each
continuing in existence one year from the
date of the license creating 1t and being en-
powered to take jurisdiction OF any dispute
between employers Or workmen within that
time whether brought before IL by the
parties that originally petitioned for the
tribunal, or by others, or even by parties
from another country where no such tribunal
exists. The third type is the permanent state
pointed for definite terms and empowered to
hear cases anywhere within the common
wealth Such boards were created in New
York and Massachusetts in 1885. Local
boards also are provided for in these states
In PENNSYLVANIA, Kansas, New York and
Massachusetts the local tribunals approach
either the New Jersey or the Ohio type, with
some distinctive features in each state In
board Is constituted by the mere agreement
OF the parties interested. In the other states
named it derives its authority from county
or other local court. The Pennsylvania
boards are formed, according to the Wallace
act of 1SS3 under licenses issuing from courts
OF common pleas upon the petition of five
employers and fifty workmen. The pro-
cedure is similar in Kansas and Ohio, but in
n, ;ef 4 4
gets its License from the judge of the county
court. The composition OF the board is in all
cases prescribed by law. In Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Kansas there must be an equal rep
names of the persons selected being given
e. .hsas tas is petition aisagret%sn sns ''aF; tRs
case goes to an umpire the law wisely pro-
the arbitration begins. In Massachusetts as
In New Jersey each party selects an arbitra-
tor and those two third. New York recog.
nizes the labor. organizations. The local
employees represented are members in good
standing of an organization that is repre-
sented by delegates in central body Qike
the Central Labor union of New York city,
that body names two arbltrators. Ii the en-
ployes belong to no organization they choose
their two arbitrators themselves by major.
lty vote. Two arpitrators are named by the
employer or employees and the four so Sc
u
tion between the degrees of
PERMANANCY THESE TRIBUNALS
are expected to enl 10Y and the magnitude Of
the cases presumed to come befors them. In
Massachusetts, for example, where single
employer of as many as twenty-five men may
join with them in creating a legal tribunal
the tribunal ceases to exist when it renders
Its decision. In Pennsylvania, on the other
hand, the expectation OF the trainers of the
law evidently was that the tribunal would
be created only to deal with disputes involv.
Ing large interests, SINCE tive employers and
nifty workmen must JOIN In the petition to
may continue to arbitrate for the same par
ties indefinitely. In Ohio the petition must
be signed by forty wOrkmen and four EN-.
ployers, or by four employers employing not
OF at least forty men and the tribunal, as we
have seen, exists for year.
None of these boards have any power to
act until a case isvountarily submitted, with
specifications In writing, by the parties to the
dispute. Then the procedure Is with legal
f0rmalty; subp4nas may be issued. wit
nesses examined and books demanded. The
diclsion Is final and binding in New Jersey:
Ohio and Kansas. In Ohio the decision of
an umpire Is made matter OF record In the
county court whence judgement and process
may issue to enforce it.. In Massachusetts
sdecison has whatever binding effect has
mia umpre's decision is binding in all mat
ters but future wages that becomes binding
II the decision Is accepted by both parties
and may then be enforced by the courts. In
the state board.
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED
by;all this elaborate legal machinery? As yet
not not great deal except in w. ypeennsylyarnis
Satisfactorily settled number OF bad differ
ences. Voluntary arbitration in the HOch-
ing valley with the Hon. Allen Il. Thurman
for umpire, by which wages were advanced
n IN NJ n nj IA